Soft solder is a blended alloy of tin (7.31 g/cm³) and lead (11.34 g/cm³) that is used in plumbing and electronics.It is 63.5% tin by mass.What is the density of the alloy?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the density of the alloy, we use the rule of mixtures for density, which is given by the formula: $\rho_{alloy} = \frac{\sum (m_i)}{\sum (V_i)}$, where $m_i$ and $V_i$ are the masses and volumes of the individual components, respectively. Given that the alloy is 63.5% tin by mass, let's assume we have 100 g of the alloy. This means we have 63.5 g of tin and 36.5 g of lead. The densities of tin and lead are 7.31 g/cm³ and 11.34 g/cm³, respectively. The volume of each component can be found by dividing the mass by the density ($V = \frac{m}{\rho}$). Thus, the volume of tin is $V_{Sn} = \frac{63.5}{7.31}$ and the volume of lead is $V_{Pb} = \frac{36.5}{11.34}$. The total volume is the sum of these volumes. The density of the alloy is then the total mass (100 g) divided by this total volume. Calculating this gives a density of approximately 8.79 g/cm³.

Soft Solder Is a Blended Alloy of Tin (7